Voltron: Legendary Defenders Short Stories & One-Shots
by Fangirl.Awesome
Summary: Just some short stories and one-shots I think of. DISCLAIMER: I don't own VLD. Rated Teen since I'm playing it safe but the romance will be FLUFF ONLY because we are keeping it pure in this household. I'm going off of What Would Jesus Do, basically. Let me know if you enjoy! I also forgot I already had a VLD fanfic lol woops I'll update this one instead of the other.
1. Reunited Heartbeats (Kidge)

"It's a simple mission, Keith, one that should go without a hitch." Kolivan's gaze turned to the young Blade member beside him, studying his face.

Keith kept his eyes trained on the screen displaying information; location, entrance and exit, time of set departure. He drank it in.

"Who am I supposed to recover?" He asked. He crossed his arms.

Kolivan hesitated before swiping the holographic screen. "This is her. Do not let her small stature fool you," he warned as Keith scoffed. "She's highly dangerous and an excellent fighter. Unfortunately, we have no photos or videos of her face. She is rarely in the areas we placed our cameras, so you will have to rely on the subtle markings on her attire. But it is extremely imperative we retrieve her soon, so she can inform us of what she's learned."

Keith nodded, jaw set in determination, violet eyes ablaze. "This will be no problem." He turned to go, hands reaching to pull on his hood when Kolivan stopped him. "Keith."

He waited until he locked eyes with the young man before he said, "Do not let your emotions jeopardize the mission."

"I know, sir," Keith said. Kolivan didn't miss the quick flash of irritation on his face. But he felt that the warning was necessary; Keith didn't know who that girl was. But Kolivan did. And it's someone who Keith had not seen since Team Voltron disbanded to let a younger group from Earth step in. Kolivan couldn't tell Keith the face behind the mask. The shock to his system would distract him and he wouldn't get in successfully. He only hoped that the surprise would wear off fast enough for him and the girl to get back in one piece.

Kolivan turned away from Keith's retreating back, closing his eyes. Please let this end well.

It was darker than Keith thought. The only light came from the faint flow on his suit, a purple glow dusting the walls and floors of the Galra communications base. He knew the markings he had to look for on the other Blade member's suit, and he also knew she was smaller than other galrans, a fact he didn't know how she explained to the communicators.

He hugged the wall, his mask allowing him to see heat signatures. He watched as two colorful blobs walked the hall around the corner and he held his breath and blade ready. But they turned away from him and didn't notice the glow in the shadows. He made quick work of locating his fellow Blade member's sleeping quarters, and even quicker work dismantling the lock system and slipping inside the dark room.

He only had to wait a few minutes before the door was slowly pushed open and the tip of a blade was seen. Light spilled into the room and Keith stayed in the darkest corner, not wanting anyone else to see him if they happened to pass by in the corridor. No sound emerged from the silhouetted figure in the doorway, and if Keith hadn't been staring right at her, he wouldn't have known she was there at all. In one fluid motion the door slammed shut, plunging the room into pitch blackness, and a blade was whistling towards his face.

Keith ducked and twisted, using the momentum from the spin to whip his own blade out of its sheath, pointing it at the girl. The fight hit pause in seconds when Keith came face to face with another blade, identical to the one now lodged into the wall where his head was only moments before. They stood there, chests heaving and stances rigid, knives out and aiming towards the other's throat. From the subtle light coming from both their suits, Keith could only make out the Blade's scowling mouth from underneath her hood.

"Not the welcoming I was expecting," Keith panted from underneath his mask. His voice was muffled, and he felt the heat of his breath on his face.

She didn't respond. But she did slowly lower her blade. Reaching past Keith, she yanked the other blade out of the wall, and it came out like it was stuck in soft butter. Keith didn't put away his own blade until he saw the girl's were safely in her thigh sheaths.

"Maybe some lights?" Keith hesitantly walked past her and groped the wall for a light switch. A loud clap sounded from behind him and he pivoted, hand gripping his knife's handle. But he relaxed when he noticed the girl's hands go back to her sides and the lights flickered on. With the room shrouded in light, Keith could now take in the Blade member.

She was significantly shorter than Keith, but her suit hugged the muscles lining her body and her curves, obviously depicting that she was a woman. Metal armor was on her chest only and she had tall boots on, also metal. He caught sight of her gloved hands when she crossed her arms, shifting to cock a hip out. She looked almost exactly like a Galran, except for her height and her pose.

"We need to leave. I'm here to safely extract you from this base and take you to Kolivan for a debriefing and full release of the intel you collected," Keith said, ignoring the way this girl stood straighter when he talked. "We should leave as soon as possible, so pack up your things and—"

"Take off your mask."

Keith stopped talking and frowned at the girl's voice. It sounded oddly familiar, and it tickled his brain. Keith scratched the back of his head and asked, "What?"

She stepped closer and gripped her upper arms, and Keith winced at how her fingers dug into her skin. "Take it off."

Confusion and wariness lacing his body, he deactivated the mask and slid his hood off. A gasp erupted from the woman in front of him and he watched as her whole body trembled and a hand shot up to her mouth.

His name trickled from her lips like honey. "Keith?"

He backed up and hovered his hand over his blade, but his heart thumped loudly in his ears. He felt like he knew her. "How do—how do you know my name?"

A watery laugh came from beneath the hood and she shoved it off her head. It was Keith's turn to let out a cry of shock. There was purple paint—maybe ink—on her face, and her hair was much longer than when he last saw her, but her smile and golden-brown eyes were unmistakable. "Pidge?"

As if saying her name broke down the invisible wall dividing them since the lights turned on, she ran across the room and threw her arms around him, burying her face into his neck. It took Keith a second to shake out of his frozen state, but once he did, he held her tight and shoved his face into her fluffy hair. He squeezed her when he felt her shaking, and it felt like eternity had passed when they finally broke apart.

Questions streamed out of both of them, and they let out laughs. Pidge swiped at her eyes. Whatever was coating her face didn't seem to have worn off from her tears, or the hasty wiping of her gloves.

"When did you join the Blade?" Keith asked, hands resting on Pidge's shoulders.

"A little while after we left Voltron. I still wanted to help the universe, and this was the next best thing," she answered. She reached up and clasped his hands, her smile wide. Keith almost buckled with the contact of this simple gesture, and he beamed down at her. No one had been like this with him since Voltron was passed down to a younger generation.

"What about the rebels?" Keith slowly dropped his hands from her shoulders and let them hang by his sides. Pidge glanced at them for a split second before looking back up at him with a smirk. "Not enough danger."

Keith threw his head back and laughed but then covered his mouth. "Is the room soundproof?"

Pidge rolled her eyes and headed to her bed, crouching to pull out a box filled with gadgets and gizmos and wires and everything in between. "Of course. Who do you think I am, an amateur? That's the first thing I did when I got here. Plus, there's barely any people in this base. That's why I didn't have to dye my hair. Not enough reason to." She started rifling through the box and setting things aside.

Keith stood and watched her, a grin still plastered on his face. It's been three years since everyone went their separate ways after a few more years of serving as Paladins. Pidge had to be, what, in her twenties, now? That's where Keith was.

"We should probably get going soon. Kolivan wanted us in and out as fast as possible," Keith told her, going to her and stopping to help. His hand went to grab a canister-looking-thing but Pidge shot out and stopped him. "Don't touch that!"

Keith recoiled and held his hand to his chest. "Why?"

Pidge turned away and shrugged. "I don't know, I just don't want you to. Might explode."

"Then why is it in a box filled with other things stuffed under your bed?!" Keith's eyes were wide. Pidge ignored him and stood, shoving the box back under the bed with a swift kick.

"I'm ready," she said, picking the things up that were still on the floor. There was what looked like a watch, but instead of a clock there was a small screen, and another thing: a—"Hand? Is that a hand?" Keith looked on with horror at the limp hand in Pidge's grasp.

Pidge peered up at him and tilted her head, some of her hair spilling out of its braid. She strapped on the watch. "I'm not Galran, Keith, I can't activate the locks on the doors without Galran fingerprints. I took this from a sentry I dismantled and use it instead."

"But I'm Galran. I can open the doors myself," he pointed out, holding up his hand for emphasis.

Pidge's gaze held his for a moment, causing Keith to have the urge to fidget before monotoning, "They can see who opens the doors when a hand is set upon the screen. If you use your fingerprints then you'll give away our location to everyone in this base and they'll know you're here."

Keith closed his mouth, another argument dying on his tongue, and nodded, feeling dumb. Even though he was used to Pidge's explanations—he heard them all the time when they were paladins together—he could never shake the feeling of stupidity when he received them. "Right. Let's move."

Pidge swept her hair away and flipped her hood back on, concealing her face. Keith copied her and then turned on his mask, thermal vision a go. He stretched his hand back and felt Pidge grab on. Electricity zinged from his fingers, traveled up his arm, and into his chest and up his neck. He scowled and shook himself. What was wrong with him? This feeling was unfamiliar. Unwanted. He growled.

"You okay?" Pidge's voice came from behind him and he coaxed the weird tingly feeling from his body. He was on a mission to bring Pidge back safely. He would not let his emotions get in the way.

Instead of answering, he tugged her forward and shut off the lights, then slowly pulled the door open. Pidge let go of his hands and came up to stand behind him, blades glinting in the dim light from the corridors. Her head jerks and she gives Keith a thumbs up, blades glinting. They headed out. Pidge led them through the halls with confidence, relying on Keith's thermal vision whenever a corner came up.

It felt like a piece of Keith's life was set snugly into the puzzle when he and Pidge were traversing down the corridors; him sensing sentries and Pidge guiding them both through the base. It felt right, it felt good, working together, and it also made Keith wonder how he had lived so long without that sense of contentment. It also left him a little nervous; he's never felt like that with someone, never relied on someone in that manner. What if he had to let Pidge and that feeling go? She would eventually have to move on to the next mission, or decide to settle back on earth. She would want a family, a husband. She would go away, and take the puzzle piece with her and leave Keith just as lost and unfinished as he was before. The realization left him breathless with the weight of it.

He was so entangled in his thoughts that he didn't warn Pidge in time of the sentry coming at them from the next hall. Keith already had his sword out when Pidge stumbled upon the guard. But she held up a hand to him. Keith barely had the willpower to stop, but he did; his body quivered with energy and his muscles were taut.

"Technologic Engineer number 308, state your business for ignoring curfew," the guard asked, his voice dead and mechanical.

"Oh, I was just—" Pidge cut off her sentence. She reached up to the sentry's head and twisted it and in a blur the sentry was on the ground, twitching, gun casted aside.

Without needing to be asked, Keith housed his sword (now back in knife form) and helped Pidge lug the body into the nearest storeroom. When they stuffed the last finger through the crack they shut the door and started to the hangar.

They almost made it.

The first guard was blocking the hangar doors, and Keith didn't so much as blink. He took his blade and with a flick of the wrist, that guard was no longer a problem. But the next ten guards certainly were.

"Run behind and attack the back five, I'll get the front," Keith yelled to Pidge, rushing forward and slicing the gun right out of one of the guard's hands.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw her twin blades flash and she slid between the legs of one guard, popped up, and stabbed him in the back, turning just in time to deflect a gun barrel and take down another.

Keith advanced with a cry and plunged his sword into a guard's chest, twisting it free. He heard gunfire behind him and he ducked and spun, kicking out his leg as he did so. He connected with something solid and a guard fell with a thud. Keith ended him in a slash.

Something hard hit him in the head and he was thrown onto the ground, his breath leaving him in one huff. Stars littered his vision and his head throbbed in tune with his pulse. He groaned and deactivated his mask, finding it hard to breathe.

Another thing collided with his skull and his head slammed into the ground, fire spreading from his scalp all the way into his brain. This time Keith's entire vision went black, but he could still hear the sound of a battle: Gunfire, blades, the sound of guards falling to the ground, Pidge screaming his name. They all faded as Keith descended into unconsciousness.

"Welcome back, Sleeping Beauty." Keith's eyes sprang open but he immediately shut them when the light sliced his mind. A beep kept sounding in the air and it screamed through his brain. It felt like a million hammers were pounding every nerve in his head, and on those hammers were little knives trying to cut him from the inside out. He moaned as nausea encased him.

"Yeah, I know. You hit the ground pretty hard, didn't you?" He felt something stroke the sweat-encrusted hair from his forehead, and for a second the pain was gone. He sighed through dry lips.

"Ho—" Keith winced at the new wave of agony his voice caused. He pushed forward anyway. "How long was I...?

"A few hours," came the quiet answer. Keith recognized the voice as Pidge's. Suddenly, Keith gasped and he struggled to sit up, squeezing his eyes tightly and gritting his teeth as the throbbing intensified, now met with dizziness. But he needed to know. "Pidge," he breathed. Hands found his upper arms and he trailed them up to their shoulders and then up the neck and finally to the face. A sharp breath reverberated through the tense air but Keith didn't hear it. His heart was in his ears like the ocean and he held his breath as he traced her jaw, her cheeks, her nose, her forehead; searching, asking an unspoken question.

"Keith, what are you doing?" Pidge's voice was a squeak but she cleared her throat and clutched Keith's hands away from her. "Stop."

Keith did. "Are you hurt? Did they hurt you? Where are we? Did we make it? Are you in—"

"Keith, we're fine. I took a guard's gun and plowed them down in two seconds. We're on your pod ship heading to Kolivan. It's set to autopilot right now so I can watch your vitals," Pidge soothed. Keith didn't listen to that. She avoided the most important question.

Keith stole his breath and carefully pried his eyes open to see the most beautiful sight he's ever seen. Pidge sat in front of him, a green glow silhouetting her, similar to when they first reunited and she stood in the doorway. Her hair was messy and falling out of her braid, and strands of it stuck to the sweat on her brow. But she was magnificent; a relief to the storm thundering behind his eyes.

"You are okay?" Keith asked. He took one hand away from Pidge's grasp and brought it to her cheek, thumb hovering over a small cut in the outer corner of her eye. It was barely bleeding, but Keith's eyes narrowed at the sight.

"Yes, Keith, you big worrywart. I'm okay," Pidge whispered, squeezing his hand. She let go with a frown and glanced down at the watch still on her wrist. "You're the one I'm most concerned about."

Keith closed his eyes and leaned against the wall, the lapse in pain gone and the roar of misery back. Although he didn't foresee his head giving him any sort of reprieve, his heart certainly did. The knowledge that Pidge was unhurt gave him the comfort he was lacking. It didn't matter what happened to him; Pidge was safe and secure.

"Your heart seems steady and consistent, thank goodness. Unfortunately that's all I can see with this stupid piece of junk," Pidge was telling him. He looked on through a half-lidded gaze and watched as Pidge chewed her lip while glared down at her watch and then back up at a holographic screen hovering in the air from her watch, the source of the green light. He traced her eyes then to his chest, when he then realized that it was bare except for a single sticky square taped to it.

"It's monitoring your heartbeat and then it's sending it to my watch so I can project it on the hologram," Pidge answered before Keith could open his mouth. Her cheeks were pink and she looked away from Keith's naked torso. "Making sure you don't die on me. But you took three hard hits to your head and I'm nervous there's something that I'm not seeing. I mean, obviously you probably have a concussion but there could be a brain bleed or a fracture somewhere or—"

"It'll be fine," Keith croaked, grimacing as he cut her rambling off. He held his stomach as vomit rose in his throat but he swallowed it down and shut his aching eyes.

"It'll be fine," Pidge repeated, her's sounding not as sure. He sensed her fingers settle on his neck, as if making sure herself that he was still alive. He lifted his hand and took Pidge's small one in his own, and brought it to his chest, resting above his heart. It made him feel at home, much as he also felt like his head was trying to detach itself from the rest of his body. Her hand cradled in his, her breath fanning his face, their pulses in sync, this was what he was missing those past few years, she was what he was missing.

It was in that silent, intimate, moment, that he came to the conclusion that he loved her.

A/N:

Let me know if you want a part two of this particular story. I love these two together and I even have a playlist on Spotify dedicated to these smol beans. Thank you for reading and don't forget to R&R! Love you all,

~This Multishipper Author 


	2. Loving the Lost Soul (Plance)

They mostly left him alone in the beginning. Now, after the torture and the neglect, they're forcing him to fight.

His body shook with the strain of holding himself up, and his legs cramped under the weight of the iron shackles encasing his neck and hands. The chains were connected to rings on the neck shackle and trailed to his wrists, where the metal met another set of rings.

Lance kept his head down as guards led him to the battle arena. He closed his eyes and let his feet travel the now familiar route blind. He was no stranger to the arena. He'd been there before to watch his fellow paladins fight their own monsters. Even though the battles have unusually stopped and Lance hadn't been there in quite some time, he had no trouble remembering the path.

His mind flashed to the last fight he was forced to witness. Pidge stood on one end of the arena, her skin-tight prison outfit stained and dirty, her cropped top hanging off her petite frame in tatters. Her brown eyes were dull with dark circles surrounding them, and her hair a matted mess.

Lance had caught the eye of Shiro, who sat a few stands in from of him and to his left. The older boy's face was stone, but his eyes betrayed the fear he was feeling for the youngest paladin. A guard sitting next to Shiro knocked his gun into Shiro's head, and he looked ahead, not looking back at the Cuban again.

On the opposite side of the battlefield was Grinder, a rocklike creature notorious for grinding his opponents into the ground and a ruthless warrior.

The fight ended in Pidge being taken off the field unconscious and bleeding everywhere, and Grinder picking up pieces of his shattered body.

Pidge had held her own, calculating the right times to strike, and she succeeded in breaking off chunks of Grinder's body piece by piece with a dagger she was granted to use. But she was eventually overpowered by the huge earthen monster and fell victim to Grinder's famous move.

Lance didn't know if she was even alive, anymore.

The sound of clanking metal caused Lance to open his eyes, and he squinted against the bright light of the arena. Galrans were screaming and cheering, their cries so loud it shook the stands. The shackles fell away from tan hands, and then from a tan neck until finally Lance was free from his personal metal prison.

The two Galran guards roughly seized Lance's upper arms and shoved him into the boiling hot arena. Lance stumbled on weakened legs and fell to the ground with a thud, sweat already forming on his skin in beads.

I'm not going to be able to survive this fight. I haven't eaten in days. What if it's Grinder?

Dark thoughts tumbled through Lance's mind until his entire being was consumed in dread. The roaring of the crowd drilled into Lance's head and pulsed between his eyes. Again, he squeezed his eyes shut and shakily pushed himself off the ground, memories of Pidge's fight emblazoned in his brain. His ocean eyes snapped open with a fiery determination, and anyone in the first rows of the crowd couldn't ignore the steel in his gaze.

I'm fighting for her. I'll win this for Pidge.

Lance's chest heaved up and down as a gate to a shadowed tunnel clanged open. The crowd's cheers reached a new crescendo, and it drowned out even the beating of Lance's own heart.

He scanned the crowd, searching for the friends he's afraid to lose; maybe seeing them will give him the strength to fight.

A shock of white hair stood out of the purple and Allura's colorful orbs met his own. They were cloudy, but cleared when she saw it was him. Her royal presence hadn't gone away, and any Galran who sat near her and her guards kept their distance, but her body sagged and her face, neck, and what little of her chest was exposed was covered in strangely shaped scars and burns. Allura offered a small smile and blew a strand of her hair out of her face.

Lance's heart grew heavy to see the once luscious long waves chopped off to above her pointy ears and the state her body was in. She may be a princess—and have the air of one—but she no longer looked the part.

Lance tore his gaze away from her and focused on the tunnel, the desire to find the rest of his crew squashed by the fear of what he would find. The sight of Allura had shaken him; what if his other friends were worse off than her? Seeing them might ruin what little chance he had of surviving this battle.

The shadows in the tunnel stirred until some detached from the wall in the back and made their way to the opening. Lance's blood rushes through his veins with the heat of a thousand suns, and he clenched his fists. His opponent must not be too large for him to take on. If it was, the Galrans would've given him a weapon to fight with. After all, this battle was for their entertainment; they didn't want him to die too quickly.

Lance could feel the stare of the Galran leader on him as he tried to gather what little energy he could muster.

Empress Haggar, the witch who was loyal to Zarkon, watched with slitted yellow eyes as Lance slowly walked towards the mass of shadows nearing the tunnel's end. Her mouth twitched into a knowing grin, and her fingers clicked against her throne expectantly.

Finally, Lance's opponent entered the light of the arena, and the air was sucked out of the entire facility in a matter of a second.

The fire that raged through Lance's body turned to ice, and the boy's limbs suddenly felt like lead. His lungs stopped breathing and his heart stopped pumping and his fists stopped clenching as the world started spinning.

A tormented scream ripped out of the mouth and soul of an Altean princess; a guttural cry came up from a former Blade member; tears silently made trails down a Samoan's dark cheeks; blue eyes watered on a red-headed, mustached man; and quiet weeps floated above the former leader of Voltron.

But these all went unnoticed by the teenage boy now on his knees, the community of Galrans in the arena, and the petite warrior standing in the mouth of the tunnel.

No longer clothed in the raggedy apparel of a prisoner, Pidge surveyed the crowd until her eyes landed on Lance. To his horror, what once were amber irises and black pupils were now a bright yellow. Everything in her eye sockets were yellow; sclera, iris, pupil.

Lance's gaze trailed down her face and rested on the metal contraption completely covering the lower half of the girl's face.

A muzzle. To keep her quiet.

The world was turning into a mess of colors, and the air wasn't returning fast enough to Lance's lungs. He scanned the rest of her body to see that every inch of her skin was mottled with scars and cuts, and that her clothing was one of a Galran soldier. The markings on her armor glowed and cast a purple haze around the girl he fell in love with.

Before he could do anything, Haggar's voice filled the arena.

"Well, what have we here?" Her voice scratched over hidden speakers. "I see our little boy didn't know what had happened to his friend."

The crowd rumbled, but hushed when Haggar spoke again, this time addressing all the paladins. "What was once the Green Paladin is now our soldier, programmed to do anything we demand of her. The muzzle was the unfortunate result of her disobedience in the beginning, but with a few—lessons she learned rather quick to do what is asked of her."

A lump had found its home in Lance's throat, and sobs racked his body as he realized what was about to happen. He stared as Pidge shifted her yellow eyes to his own, watched as Pidge sprinted forward when Haggar gave the word to start, merely closed his eyes and his ears to the screams of thousands as she neared him.

I can't fight you, Pidge. I can't hurt you.

Lance stayed on the ground as Pidge came barreling toward him, her hands fists in her gloves. The lights glinted off her knuckles and it took Lance a second to realize she had steel in hidden in her gloves. The light glinted of the metal peeking out of a rip.

Tears tracked down Lance's cheeks and into his lap but he paid them no mind, his only focus on the young woman in front of him. Wind from the punch gave him chills as they hit his wet cheeks, but still, he did not flinch away from his impending death.

Seconds before the blow came, Lance smiled and looked up into the gaze of his love.

"I love you, Pidgeon."

The other Paladins looked away from their friends—one alive and one not—and sobbed, their grief drowned by the bloodthirsty roars from the Galrans around them.

They did not see her yellow eyes flicker back to their usual amber for a split second. Nor did anyone see her lips mutter three words underneath her muzzle.

I love you too, Lance.

A/N:

Haha, woops. Sorry. This is really sad. But I'm here to water your Plance, children. Come hither.

~Author


	3. Lifeguard on Duty (Plance again haha)

A/N:

Wasn't supposed to write and publish another Plance story until I have other ones down, but here we are. Anyway, hope you enjoy since this one has a smooch in it. Ew, lol, low key hate that word.

The water was cold as she dove into it, disrupting the still blue it once wore. Pidge opened her eyes underwater and bubbles obscured her vision. She slowly let out all the breath stored in her lungs as the little white spheres started to dissipate.

As her air bubbles rose, she sank, until she hit the bottom of the pool. She closed her eyes again and ignored the growing pain in her lungs. Just a little bit longer.

Pidge tried to block out the now familiar scene that starts to play in her head, but no matter how hard she squeezes her eyes shut or digs her nails into her palms, the television news story wouldn't go away. The blaring light in the darkness of night, the words that punched a hole straight through the brunette's heart, all of it returned to Pidge as her lungs were screaming for air.

"Sam Holt and his son, Matt Holt, weren't the only victims to the fire. Takashi Shirogane, a young Airforce pilot, also lost his life to the blaze."

Pidge hated how monotone the reporter sounded. Loathed the way she stared into the screen with zero emotion. A family broken apart by some stupid arsonist, and a young man with a full life ahead of him, dead, and the newscaster didn't even blink.

Pidge screamed with what little air she had left and pushed off the bottom of the pool, rocketing her way up to the surface. She broke the water and gasped, gulping in air. She kept her eyes shut until her lungs finally stopped throbbing.

She paddled her way over to the side of the pool and clutched to the edge as she shoved the memory away; back into the dark burrows of her mind she refused to travel to.

A pair of dark feet came into her eyesight and stopped in front of her, casting a shadow over Pidge. Her eyes traveled up the legs, past the toned torso, up the shoulders to meet the gaze of a boy a couple years older than she was. He was wearing red swim shorts and wore a whistle around his neck. He smirked down at her and she couldn't help but notice the deep blue of his eyes set into his tanned skin.

"You okay, miss? You were down there for a long time," he said, crouching down to be level with Pidge.

Pidge shoved her wet hair out of her face and looked away from his bemused gaze. "Fine," she answered.

"Are you sure? I couldn't bear to know that a damsel in distress is in trouble and I couldn't do anything to help." White teeth contrasted against the boy's face.

Pidge gritted her teeth at the "damsel in distress" comment but chose to keep silent, instead launching herself out of the indoor pool and onto the slick tile next to him. Now she was the one looking down on him, and she smiled.

"Thank you for your worry, but I'll be going, now." Water cascaded down her forest green one-piece and she pulled up the front as she started to walk away from the lifeguard.

"Hey, wait!" He called behind her, causing several people in the crowded pool to turn and look their way. The boy grabbed Pidge's hand and stopped her trek to the bleachers. "What's your name?"

Pidge swallowed down the urge to rip her hand out of this stranger's hold. She turned her head slightly and answered with a curt, "Katie."

She slipped her hand out of the lifeguard's and walked to her waiting towel and glasses. At the sight of the eyewear, Pidge's throat got tight and she had to fight the lump down as she slid them on. She wrapped her towel around herself and padded to the woman's locker room.

"I'm Lance!" He called after her.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw Lance watch her as she left, and she scrunched her eyebrows in annoyance and amusement.

"Take a picture, it'll last longer," she muttered under her breath, her sight of the boy cutting off as the door closed behind her.

"You did your exercises, right?" Colleen Holt asked her daughter the next morning, on Monday.

"Yes, Mom," Pidge answered, rolling her eyes. She paid no attention to the way her chest ached at the lie.

Colleen had made Pidge do weekly swims at the community pool when she noticed how much time she spent on the computer, searching for the arsonist who killed her brother and father. Like a persistent fly that kept buzzing by the ear, Colleen had nagged Pidge to pause her useless search for the seemingly ghost who set fire to her husband's work place and get out of the house for a while.

Pidge finally consented after the third week of pushing and started going every Sunday evening. But she didn't do her routine last night: a slow freestyle as a warmup, then a few laps of breaststroke, a few laps of backstroke, a pathetic attempt at the butterfly, and than as a cool down, she would do another freestyle.

"And no one bothered you?" Colleen set Pidge's lunch in front of her and watched as Pidge packed her backpack.

Pidge hesitated, Lance's smiling face popping into her head, before she shook her head. "Nope."

Colleen smiled and clapped her hands, the worry lines and wrinkles fading for a second. "Good. Have a good day, sweetie. I love you."

That's another thing. Ever since Matt and Sam passed away, 4 months ago, Colleen had started saying "I love you" more than usual. She used to say it every once in a while when she felt like it needed to be said, but now whenever Pidge left the house or was about to hang up a phone call, she'd slip it in.

"Love you too," Pidge said, slinging her back pack over her shoulder. She waved to her mom and was out the front door, quietly closing it behind her so it wouldn't make a loud sound. All of the Holt's neighbors were in their later years, and the couple who lived next door always woke up late.

When Pidge got to school she wasn't surprised to see Allura standing by her locker. Allura was a guidance counselor in the high school where Pidge attended, and Pidge had started going to her since the fire.

"Hey, Katie, how are you this morning?" Allura's white hair was pulled back into a neat bun, and her dark skin glowed in the fluorescent lighting of the hallway.

"I'm good. How are you? And it's Pidge, remember?" Pidge answered, spinning the combination on her locker. She started using the nickname her brother gave her when she was younger in substitute to her real one.

"Right, sorry." Allura's accent made her words sound crisper than normal. "Did you go swimming last night?"

"Yeah," Pidge said, getting the books out of her locker and putting them in her backpack. "I met someone, actually. His name was Lance."

"His?" Allura's voice sounded curious and Pidge shot her a glare. Even though Allura was a teacher, she was still pretty young and didn't mind Pidge or any of the students treating her as such.

"It's not what you think," she said hastily, shutting her locker.

"Of course." Allura still had a strange smile on her face but she didn't press the topic. They both started walking down the hall towards Pidge's first class.

"Are you excited for Robotics?" Allura asked, nodding to some students as they passed by.

Pidge shifted her backpack and her eyes gleamed with pleasure.

"Yeah, today we're getting partners for our robot design and I'm super excited." Pidge pushed her green headband that held her short hair away from her face up more.

"Good! I hope you get the person you want," Allura answered, clasping her hands in front of her.

Pidge's mood dropped from anticipation to loneliness in a span of a few seconds. She hadn't told Allura that she still hadn't made any friends in her classes; all the students know her either as "the girl who's brother and dad died in an unsolved arson" or "the freak who spends all her time on the computer".

Allura whispered, "Have fun, Pidge," as they stopped in front of her class, and she walked away, her skirt brushing her legs as she moved.

Pidge stepped into the classroom and found her usual seat near the window. She hated being seated in the middle or back of room since it was so far from a window or a door. What if there was a fire and she couldn't get out? What if she ended up like...? She forced the painful thought away as someone took the seat next to her.

The students sat at one of the tables with two barstools that were lined in rows in the classroom, and the ones closest to Pidge usually stayed empty. But not today. Today some brave classmate decided to have a seat next to the weird girl. It was only natural for Pidge to be curious on who it was. So she turned to face forward and peeked at the person at her side.

And barely kept her mouth from falling open.

It was Lance. The boy from the swimming pool. His brown hair was slightly messy, like he only put a little effort in styling it, and he had a green army jacket on over a baseball tee and jeans. Pidge would be lying if she said he didn't look good. And she'd also be lying if she denied that the thought of him escaping with her through the window during a fire crossed her mind.

"You see something you like?" A voice teased lowly.

Pidge's eyes widened as she realized she was staring and she flitted her gaze to meet Lance's.

"Hey, Katie," Lance said, grinning.

Pidge worked her mouth before she answered. "Hey." She quickly shifted so she was facing the front of the room as the teacher, Mr. Smythe, or as he prefers, Coran, started speaking.

But half of her attention was on the teenager by her side. She didn't know Lance took this class. After all, it's November, and Lance had never shown up here before that.

Suddenly, Pidge felt a little nudge at her side. She tilted her head so Lance was just barely in her vision and pushed up her glasses.

"So, like, I just joined this class and have no idea what's happening. So...what's happening?" Lance whispered out of the side of his mouth.

Pidge rolled her eyes. "It's a robotics class. We're getting our partners today and we're going to start designing our—" she was cut off by Shiro.

"Pidge!" Pidge cringed as her nickname was called out by her teacher. She wasn't grimacing because of the fact he used "Pidge"—she told all her teachers to call her that in honor of Matt's annoying nickname for her—but because now every pair of eyes were on her.

"Yes?" She asked, keeping her gaze on her clenched fists.

Coran said, "Please, no talking while I'm talking. It's disrespectful."

Pidge glanced up at him and saw that he was already turning back to the whiteboard.

"Alright!" He said. "Almost time for partners."

It was quiet for a few moments, in which Pidge was paying attention to Coran. But a sharp pst pierced the girl's ears.

She groaned quietly and turned to Lance.

"Yes?" She hissed, annoyed.

"I just wanted to say—" Lance never got to finish his sentence. Shiro called out their names before he could say what he wanted.

"Perfect! You guys are already sitting by each other. Pidge and Lance, you guys are partners. Pidge, since you're one of the more experienced students, and Lance—well—isn't, than I thought you could show him the ropes." Coran smiled at them, not noticing the way Pidge gaped at him in disbelief. But she slammed her mouth shut when Lance gave an enthusiastic "yes!" and turned to give her a high-five. She ignored him and started pulling out her binder.

They were quiet for a few moments, Pidge internally grumbling about her partner, when Lance crushed the silence. "So what's up with the name Pidge? Is it, like, a nickname or something?"

Pidge squeezed her eyes shut and gritted her teeth against the throb in her chest. "Yeah."

"Oh, okay. Can I call you that?" Lance asked, plopping his elbows on the table and grinning at her. She glared at him. "Only my friends call me it," she lied. She had zero friends but everyone opted to call her that anyway. They at least respected her request.

Lance's smile fell a little bit at the passive-aggressive jab, but he forged ahead nonetheless. "Great! So, Pidge, what are we working on?"

Through the next few weeks, Pidge eventually grew to like Lance. She got used to his humor, and his pathetic flirting with the other girls, and his never ending persistence of trying to make her smile. She learned that Lance was Cuban and his family was huge and loud, and that Lance had moved with them to attend Garrison High School. She found out that although Lance didn't seem to put much effort into school, he was actually incredibly smart. And, she eventually found herself searching for him outside of Robotics and looking forward to Sunday nights at the pool. It was on one of those nights, a whole year later, that she finally told him about herself and her own family.

"...so, they passed away. Never found the bodies, never got closure there. But it's getting a little better," Pidge told Lance, dragging her hand and creating swirls in the water. The pool was closed, but since Lance was the one who had to lock up, he and Pidge stayed late to swim some more, something they do every so often.

Lance shifted from his position on the pool edge and glanced down at Pidge. She was in the water and not meeting his gaze.

"I-I'm so sorry," Lance whispered. He hated the way those words sounded. They had no substance to them, offered no real comfort. They were just words that were used to fill the heavy silence. But he meant them, meant them with all of his heart.

Pidge shrugged and water made little rivulets down her bare skin. "It is what it is, I guess. I just focus on how this was all in God's plan, and it happened for a reason."

She peeked under her lashes at him and gave him a small smile. Lance smiled back and looked away, feeling a blush tinge his cheeks. Pidge didn't know this, but ever since the day they first stayed past closing at the pool and they spent hours talking, Lance was recognizing that he was falling in love with her and her feisty personality; he was falling faster each day. A chilling splash sent him sputtering out of his head.

Pidge laughed and swam away from him as he coughed. "Sorry, you were somewhere else. Thought a cold splash might pull you out of it."

Lance fake-glared at her and smirked. "You just declared war, Pidgey."

"Oh, no, I'm so scared," she said, sticking her tongue out at him.

Lance responded by jumping in and immediately sending waves her way. She shrieked and laughed as she splashed him in retaliation. They went back and forth, unconsciously inching closer with each attack, until they both wiped the water out of their eyes and realized they were half-a-foot apart.

Pidge froze and her heart started pumping in overdrive, sounding like thunder in her ears. Lance looked down at the small girl in front of him, having been through so much yet still smiling, still laughing, still having complete faith in the Big Guy in the Sky. He admired her for her strength, loved her for it. The playful grin disappeared from his face and his eyes stole a glance at her lips then back up at her face.

Pidge locked eyes with Lance and her cheeks flamed. Her hands drifted up from the water and onto Lance's shoulders, barely reaching even though she was standing on her tiptoes. Lance's arms encircled her waist and in a flash their lips collided.

The world stopped spinning at that moment. The ocean stopped churning, the moon outside seized gleaming, the breeze paused its mindless flow. The news lady that has dimmed her report in the past months in Pidge's mind stopped speaking all together. The two teenagers in the pool were the only thing that was truly alive, that truly mattered.

Pidge fell into the kiss and smiled against Lance's mouth, finally pulling away with a gasp and a smile. Lance's vibrant eyes were sparkling, and they were filled with such adoration that Pidge had to step away.

"That was—" Pidge started, breathless.

"—Better than I could ever imagine," Lance finished. They both let out embarrassed giggles and Pidge looked up, thanking God for—for—the great thing that just happened.

I can't believe I just kissed the lifeguard on duty, she thought. I just kissed Lance. Oh my gosh.

I can't believe I finally did it, Lance said to himself, watching Pidge bite her lip and beam at him.

To this day they still don't know who initiated their first and only kiss until their second that sealed their wedding vows (it was Pidge.) Pidge argues that it was her, and Lance is adamant that it was him, but they both are comfortable with not knowing.

All they know for certain, though, was that God brought Lance into Pidge's life and Pidge into Lance's, and they thank Him everyday for it, along with their children and grandchildren.

And they lived happily ever after. The end.


	4. Chasing Blue (All Paladins)

A/N: CONTAINS SEASON 7 SPOILERS *UNEDITED*

Ever since Lance could remember, his favorite color was blue. It was the color of rain, of the ocean. It reminded him of the sky on a summer day, and the times he would be at the beach with his family. It made him feel calm; stilled his racing heart whenever he saw it.

Blue was everything good in the world, everything good in his world. But he had to leave that world behind, instead choosing the purples and yellows of space, the oranges and grays of planets. He's only seen a handful of blue in the galaxies he's been to, but none of them offered the peace that he usually found in them. They mostly gave him anxiety and the sneaking suspicion the people on them were trying to kill him.

But they were back on earth, now, and he was surrounded by friends and family. Sendak was defeated and no huge scary robots were trying to end his or his friends' lives. Everything was good, right now. Calm. Blue. So, since there weren't any life-threatening, planet-destroying business consuming his time, Lance was bored.

"Can we pleeeaasseee go to the beach? It's only a little while away from here and it could be a team bonding trip!" Lance threw up his hands and smiled at the point he threw into his argument.

Shiro rubbed his eyes and glanced at Allura. They, Lance, and the rest of the team were gathered inside the control room of the Atlas. Coran twirled his mustache thoughtfully and suddenly snapped his fingers. "I agree with Lance. The team has been under a lot of stress and pressure lately, and a trip to the—er—beach would do us all a lot of good."

"Yes! Thank you, Coran," Lance exclaimed.

"I wouldn't mind going to the beach," Pidge spoke up. Everyone looked at her and she pushed up her glasses and shrugged. "What? I may not like the outdoors that much, but I have to admit, I'm going a little stir-crazy from being in here for so long."

Hunk nods his agreement. "And then maybe we can go to an actual restaurant. Oh, I haven't been to one in so long. I wonder if that sushi place is still down there. Ooh! We should go to that!"

Pidge crinkled her nose. "Ew, sushi is gross."

Hunk gasped. "Pidge Holt, you have offended me."

"I think going to the beach would be a waste of time. We have just found an Altean as the power-source to that robot, we should be focusing our time and resources on researching why and where this Altean came from, not frolicking at some beach," Allura said, crossing her arms. But she uncrossed them when Shiro reared his hand on her shoulder. "I think," he said. "That this decision should be up to the leader. He has listened to all of our opinions and it is up to him."

All eyes turn to Keith, who was leaning against the wall. His gaze shifted to his teammates, and Lance gave him a thumbs up and an encouraging nod. He sighed. "Fine. Let's go to the beach."

Lance's withdrawal from the ocean affected him more than he thought.

When he opened up the van door and the smell of the sea—salty with a tinge of fish—washed over his senses, he could barely hold back the barrage of tears and emotions that welled up inside him. He knew he missed it, missed the sound of the waves crashing, the birds calling to one another, the specific blue color that only belonged to the ocean, but he didn't know how much he needed it. It was like having a stuffy nose and realizing how much you took a clear nasal cavity for granted; his soul had awoken with his arrival to the sea, and he hadn't even realized it was asleep.

"You just gonna stand there or are you coming?" Pidge remarked, poking him in the side. He startled and looked down at her, stooping to carry some of the beach toys she was holding. He grabbed three pails and an umbrella and looked away sheepishly.

"Thanks," she huffed, shifting a gigantic duck floaty to the other side of her body and hefting a tote bag up higher on her shoulder. "You'd think with all these people someone would help you. Nope, they all left me to carry everything."

Lance didn't hear her. He was too entranced with staring out to the horizon, drinking in the scene in front of him. Empty sand stretched out before him, a calm ocean lazily lapping the shore, and his friends racing to see who could make it to the water first. Pidge must've seen the yearning in his gaze because she sighed.

"Here." She took the toys back from Lance and nudged him with her sandaled foot. "Go on, I'll be right behind you."

Lance smiled at her and started running, pausing once before calling back, "Thank you, Pidge!"

Pidge tripped as the head of the duck dragged on the ground in front of her. She grumbled, "I feel like such a mom."

Lance couldn't stop the tears, anymore. The joy and the nostalgia that the beach stirred in him was too overwhelming, too powerful, and he choked out a "Gracias, Jesus" as he dove into the shocking water.

"Hey, Lance! Heads up!" Hunk called as Lance surfaced. Lance swiped at his face and laughed as Hunk tossed a football at him, missing severely.

Lance grabbed the football and saw Keith tentatively enter the cold water. He grinned. "Keith!"

Keith looked up at him, arms crossed tightly over his chest. He barely caught the football that Lance chucked at him. He slipped in the sand and crashed into the ocean, spluttering and shuddering when he came back up, holding the ball over his head.

"Woohoo!" Lance and Hunk cried in unison.

Back on the sand, Pidge dumped the toys onto the spot next to a dumbstruck Allura and Coran, who was slathering sunscreen into his pale skin. "Whew," Pidge panted. Sweat dripped from her brow and into her glasses. "My arms kill."

"I have never seen such a thing," Allura breathed. Her eyes absorbed everything she could land her eyes on, and her body was stock still as she consumed it.

Pidge glanced at the ocean and shrugged. "Yeah, it's alright. Gotta be careful of those jellyfish and sharks, though."

"Jelly what?"

Keith was more of a desert person. He preferred those sands over the ones at the beach. Nonetheless, he had to admit, he respected the ocean and her power. Although, he didn't as much like how unaccustomed he was to it.

"The salt is getting into my training cut, Lance. I don't want to go in it, anymore," he repeated for what felt like the seventieth time. He stood under the rainbow umbrella that Pidge had set up, and rolled his eyes as Lance started his infamous "puppy-dog eyes".

"Please, Keith? You said yourself this was a team bonding trip," he pleaded, clasping his hands in front of him.

"I'll go with you," Allura offered, slightly raising her hand. Her confident demeanor had left and was replaced with a fidgety teenager standing in unknown territory. She pulled up her white bikini top self-consciously.

Lance's face brightened and he grabbed her hand. "Okay! Let's go."

Keith watched as he led her into the water, and Allura let out a wheezy squeal as the cold water caressed her skin. She glanced back at Keith, and he gave her a small, encouraging smile. It was enough. Her eyes turned to a steely determination and turned back to the ocean and dove in, splashing a surprised Lance.

"How do you like it?" Lance asked as Allura surfaced. Her hair was plastered to her shoulders and forehead, and she was shivering, but her smile was huge.

"I," she said. "Love it.

Keith turned to Pidge, who was struggling to get sunscreen onto her freckled back. She glanced at Keith with a sheepish look. Without talking, Keith took the sunscreen tube and rubbed some into her back.

"You getting in?" He asked as he squirted some more white paste onto his hand. Pidge arched her back as the cold sunscreen hit it.

"I don't know, if the temperature is anything like that sunscreen, I'm not even putting my pinky toe in," she said, picking up her spaghetti straps so Keith could get her shoulders.

Keith finished and shut the cap on the sunscreen. "You should at least try it."

"Says the boy who didn't even last ten minutes in said water." Pidge snorted and took back the tube. "Thanks for helping me."

Keith bumped her shoulder with his own and snapped her strap. "Anything for my little sis." •••

Hunk was ecstatic. Overjoyed. Over the moon.

He was home. Finally home, and with his best friends, all of whom were safe and alive and not dead on a planet galaxies away because a giant space insect crushed them. He was at last feeling the breeze that only earth could give, the smell of soil and sand and ocean, the gentle whisper of sand rubbing against sand. The lull of the waves. He soaked it all in, a hand in his chest squeezing his heart until tears leaked down his dark cheeks.

"Hunk?" Lance asked, paddling up to the float Hunk was lounging in. "You okay, buddy?"

Hunk sniffled and smiled, not bothering to wipe his face. "Yeah. I just, really missed this. I missed home."

Lance grasped his best friend's shoulder and leaned his head against it. "Me too, Hunk. Me too." •••

Shiro sat in the car after the rest of the paladins got out. He didn't notice that Pidge had needed help, or that Allura and Coran were amazed at earth, or that Keith was slightly uncomfortable. The only he knew was that the ocean transfixed him.

He didn't think he'd see it again. Years in space fighting, being captured and tortured, his conscience stuck in a robotic lion, had left him somewhat hopeless. Not hopeless that they weren't going to win, he knew that the paladins had what it took to defeat the Galra. It was hopelessness over the fact that, yes, they would win, but they might have to lose their lives in the process.

Seeing the way the sun dances on the waves, and the distant green blob of Pidge riding on Lance's shoulders and a red Keith on Hunk's made his throat constrict in a way that only happens when he's in private.

He sat there, letting the car heat up under the blazing sun and the tears stream down his cheeks until the air got too stuffy. He slowly opened the car door and got out, inhaling deeply. He closed his eyes and tipped his face to the sky.

They were home.

A/N:

What up bois and girls, it's another one. This is no ship, just family. So hope you enjoy. 


	5. Reunited Heartbeats (Kidge) pt2

Pidge Holt

She brought her hand back to her lap and frowned, noticing the sweat from his forehead coating it. Pidge studied the face of the young man in front of her. Pale, clammy, and eyes squeezed shut, Keith didn't look good. Well, he looked good; his features have softened over the time Pidge last saw him, and his scar wasn't as puckered and yeah, his abs were still pretty defined, but health wise—he was in bad shape.

Keith groaned and Pidge immediately scooted closer. She placed her hand on his neck and checked his pulse. Slow, but steady.

"Hang in there, Keith, we're almost there," she murmured. She stood up and checked their course up by the controls; their ship was a few miles out still of the rendezvous point.

Before she could return to Keith's side, a jolt knocked her tumbling to the floor. Her elbow rammed into the wall of the ship and she stifled a yell.

A pained gasp from Keith made her turn, and she saw him lying on the floor, retching. She scrambled to her feet and ran to him, kneeling by his side.

"Wha—?" His words were garbled and another bout of vileness rose and he vomited again.

A repetitive beep screamed into the air and Pidge whipped to see a red alert blinking on the ship's radar. A voice blared out of hidden speakers. "Incoming: unknown spacecraft. Target locked on pod ship 1123."

Pidge growled and left Keith, dashing to the controls. We're pod ship 1123, she thought bitterly.

Pidge glanced back at Keith as she deactivated the autopilot and grimaced when she saw him trying to pull himself away from his pile of puke. Every fiber of her being was telling her to go to him and help him, but she knew that if she didn't start evasive maneuvers, they were going to die.

She squeezed her eyes shut quickly and faced the controls again, deftly flipping switches and pushing buttons.

"Unknown spacecraft entered target's range. Target locked on—"

"On pod ship 1123! I know!" Pidge interrupted the mechanical voice. The beeping seemed to grow louder and she could barely hear Keith moan in pain behind her. She shoved a lever and the ship dipped to the right, careening out of their straight path.

Keith yelled behind her and Pidge winced, but she didn't look back as she called, "Sorry!"

She pulled another lever and suddenly they were curving to the left, sloping upward and away from the ship. The mechanical voice gave them the okay. "Unknown ship out of range."

Speaking of ship, Pidge hadn't seen it since they got the alert. She pivoted to look out a small side window and saw only stars and black sky. No UFO floating there with a huge ion cannon aimed at their foreheads.

Pidge narrowed her eyes but didn't have time to think about it when another beep started up. This time coming from Pidge's wrist. She glanced down to see the screen with Keith's heartbeat flashing a red warning line. It was slowing down.

In a blink of an eye she set the ship on autopilot again and was pulling Keith away from the wall he was curled up against. He made no sound as she turned him flat on his back, nor did he cry out when she gently lowered his head to lie comfortably on the floor.

"Oh no, not today, Keith," she mumbled, getting her hands in position over his chest. She settled them on his bare skin and rose up on her knees beside him. She was about to push down when a hand grabbed her and threw her away from him.

Pidge cried out and slammed into a wall. A dark figure was over Keith and Pidge's focus snapped onto it. Her twin blades were out and flying at the back of the figure before the stars cleared from her vision. The dark silhouette merely twisted out of the way without looking back and hissed with a low voice, "Stop this. I am not your enemy."

Pidge clambered to her feet, back screaming with protest, and groped the wall to steady her shaking limbs. "What did you say?"

The figure didn't answer, instead he knelt down beside Keith and tilted his chin up, uncorking a vial Pidge hadn't noticed and sliding the liquids down his throat.

"Hey!" Pidge protested, shaking the drowsiness from her head and reaching for the hidden knife in her arm sleeve. She gripped it in her hands and was about to advance on the figure when Keith coughed. The blade fell, forgotten, to the floor as Pidge ran to Keith's body and flipped him on his side, noticing the intruder doing the same. Keith shuddered and spit up liquids.

"What did you give him?" Pidge asked. She no longer thought the intruder was going to murder them in that moment, but she was still suspicious and very aware of the weapons hidden on her person, ready to be used.

"Nothing harmful," the figure answered, standing. Pidge narrowed her eyes and glanced at Keith as if to see if it was true. And it was. In fact, Keith looked better than he did a few minutes ago; his skin was no longer clammy and his breathing and heart rate both seemed to level out and return to normal.

Pidge stood as well and snatched her two blades that missed their mark and had fallen to the ground. She didn't immediately sheathe them. Instead she faced the intruder, whom had retreated to the control panel.

"Excuse me, but who are you?" She demanded, pointing a blade at his back.

Without speaking, the creature took off his hood, and red and purple skin could be seen through the lighting of the ship's buttons. Pidge's breath left her and her shoulders slumped as he turned around.

"Kolivan," she breathed. She twirled her knives and stuffed them away, wiping the sweat that had suddenly formed on her brows.

"You're late," Kolivan said. He stooped to prop a now-sleeping Keith up against the wall and felt his forehead, then stood and turned to glare at Pidge.

Pidge raised her hands in mock surrender and glanced to the map to see that her ship was still cruising towards the rendezvous point. She furrowed her brow. "But it says we're still—"

Kolivan cut her off. "I know what it says."

Pidge watched in confusion as he reached into his cloak and retrieved a dagger, and then proceeded to throw it at the control panel. It flew end over end until the hilt hit a button and the screen with the directions flickered. Pidge's mouth fell open as it switched to reveal a separate image where the rendezvous point was miles away.

"I assume Keith put a fake one so if anyone were to hijack the pod, it wouldn't reveal the Blade's rendezvous points." Kolivan side-eyed Pidge.

Pidge snapped out of it, opting to not even ask about it, and walked to Keith. The monitor on her hand was quietly beeping steadily, and she sat next to him and looked up to their leader. "How did you get on the ship?"

"I jumped."

"You jumped?!"

"Yes."

Pidge was slack-jawed once again. "But your ship?"

"Was set to self destruct after I ejected. We have plenty more to spare," Kolivan finished.

Pidge couldn't form an answer, Kolivan rendering her speechless; she shut her mouth and watched as he strode to the front of the ship, hands clasped behind his back.

Now that the threat turned out not to be a threat at all, the pain and fatigue rammed into Pidge, and she groaned quietly as she settled next to Keith.

"Here." Kolivan tossed her a vial and Pidge caught it one-handed without flinching (reflexes heightened from Blade training). "It's the same thing I gave Keith. It's a concoction our group of healers perfected over the years. It uses a plant found on Altea. We replicated it when we saw—"

Pidge downed the entire thing in one gulp, not bothering to listen to the explanation Kolivan was gracing them with. She did tune in when he mentioned, "It'll make you sleepy."

Pidge set the vial aside and immediately her eyelids felt like they were being weighed down by bricks. "You're not kidding," she mumbled, head nodding. She settled her head on Keith's shoulder. He twitched when their skin made contact, but he didn't wake.

She was fast asleep in minutes, so she didn't hear it when Kolivan whispered, "Get some rest Katie, you deserve it."

Pidge jerked awake and her eyes flew open. Her mind was foggy and she didn't recognize the grey ceiling above her. Her hand reached for her knife out of instinct, and when her hand made contact with a thigh free of a sheath she bolted upright, grogginess forgotten.

She scanned the room, and relaxed when she saw her knife and sheath on the metal shelf next to her bed. In another moment she knew where she was when her door beeped open and a familiar face walked in.

"Good, you're awake. You barely moved when we transported you from the podship into the bed." Kolivan flicked on the lights and Pidge winced as they burned her eyes. She finally realized that she was back on the main ship where off duty Blade members live.

"Where's Keith?" She asked. She stood from the bed, covers falling off her, and slipped on her weapon. She noticed that her skin was no longer purple. Probably from the drink Kolivan gave her earlier. She looked away from her hand and to Kolivan again.

"He's in the infirmary being monitored by Okla," he answered, standing arms crossed in the doorway.

Pidge frowned and mirrored the pose. "And his vitals?"

Kolivan's mouth twitched, out of irritation or amusement, Pidge didn't know. "Steady," was all he said.

Pidge narrowed her eyes, and abruptly walked to the door. "I'm going to see him."

Kolivan held out his arm and stopped her from leaving. "You cannot. You have to deliver your report. We held it off due to the situation, but it can't be put off any longer."

Pidge huffed and glared at him, but didn't argue. Kolivan said that Keith was doing fine, and she supposed she would believe him. Plus, the information she gathered was crucial. So she bit her lip and followed Kolivan down the corridor.

Keith Kogane

The first thing Keith noticed when he woke up was the absence of Pidge. Next, he noticed the pain in his head. He tried to lift it but the room spun too much and he stifled a moan.

"You shouldn't do that," a voice said near his head. "At least not for another hour or two."

Keith knew who it was without having to look. It was Okla, one of the designated healers for the Blade. She was not much older than Keith, a half-breed, with dark blue skin and pink eyes that held the stars in them. She leaned into his vision and smiled, her pieces of cropped hair falling into her eyes. "I gave you an herb that should take the pain away, but it takes a while for the effects of it to set in."

"Great," he muttered, mouth feeling as if a cotton ball was stuck in it.

"It is," Okla responded smoothly. "How are you feeling, aside from the pain?"

Keith worked his mouth and Okla left to grab a cup of water. She returned and he drank it slowly, his stomach cramping when the cool liquid hit it. "I'm better," he finally answered.

"Well, I know that," Okla said, waving to the machine displaying his steady vitals. "But how are you, Keith?"

Keith's head ached a bit more with the sudden change from the snarky healer to a concerned friend in Okla. Although they've known each other since Keith fully committed to the Blade, they don't see each other very often, usually only in passing remarks and sneaky smiles. He cleared his throat.

"I'm fine." He looked back at Okla to see her staring down at him, arms crossed.

"I know you enough to see that you're full of—" Okla's last word was left hanging in the air by a pointed look from Keith.

"Okla, please, I'm fine," Keith said. Which was a lie; he was anything but. Though he didn't dare tell her about Pidge and the conclusion he came to about her. Okla was a loyal friend and Blade member, but Keith didn't think he could handle her teasing nature about it just yet.

Okla sighed and placed a hand on Keith's shoulder. "If you say so."

Pidge Holt

The debriefing left Pidge feeling drained, and her feet dragged on the ground when she was finally released to go get dinner. She had no intention of eating, though. Her only focus was on her companion.

The lights were dim as she walked to the infirmary, signaling it was dusk. Since there was no rising or setting of the sun in space, the lights on the ship served as the giant flaming orb, brightening and dimming at the appropriate times.

The closer Pidge drew to the infirmary the quicker her steps got, until she was practically running down the hallway before she reached the infirmary door. She had to stop herself from flinging it open.

Okla looked up from a tablet as Pidge walked in, smiling when she saw her. "Pidgey," she said lovingly.

"Okie." Pidge smiled at her friend, not bothered by the nickname. Okla laughed at her own name, setting down her tablet on an empty bed. Pidge crossed the room and embraced Okla, her anxiety over Keith dissipating for a moment.

"Long time no see," Okla said into her hair.

"You're telling me." Pidge squeezed her eyes shut for just a moment before opening them and stepping back. She was about to say his name when Okla moved out of her way and gestured to a bed located deeper into the room.

"He's that way."

Pidge swallowed and suddenly found one of her knives absentmindedly being fiddled with in her hand, a habit that only occurs when she's anxious. "Is he...?"

Okla chuckled and rolled her eyes, smiling. "He's gonna be just fine. He's in the hands of the best healer in the Blade." She winked at the last sentence and Pidge's body lost all its tension.

"Thank you," she whispered, voice catching.

Okla raised an eyebrow and glanced behind her at Keith's bed then back at Pidge, curiosity filling her gaze, but she said nothing as she squeezed her friend's arm and walked out of the room.

"Took ya long enough," Keith rasped as Pidge drew closer to his bed.

"Well it wouldn't have if you didn't leave me with so many things to be debriefed," she answered, smiling slightly even though her voice cracked with relief that Keith seemed okay.

Keith chuckled and winced before placing a hand on his head. Pidge was there in a second, reaching for his head as if she could quench the pain and take it from him.

Keith waved her away. "I'm fine."

Pidge frowned and was about to bite back at him when she realized that her hand was splayed out on his, both resting on his head. Keith seemed to realize it at the same time and withdrew. A pang of disappointment jolted Pidge's hand back a second later.

Awkward silence filled the air until Keith sighed and angrily said, "This is so stupid. What am I waiting for?"

Pidge screwed her brow and was about to ask what he was talking about when a pair of lips crashed into hers. Her brain went haywire but she managed to realize it was Keith's lips, and that she didn't mind the contact one bit.

She closed her eyes and leaned in, twining her fingers into Keith's hair. She felt his hand tremble against her waist and she pulled back, gasping and concerned.

"What—?"

"Sorry," Keith said, voice rough. "That hurt a lot more than I thought."

Pidge's face flamed and she scooted back, kicking herself for not knowing how to kiss a boy. "Oh, sorry, I've never kissed anyone before," she blurted, briefly touching her lips before shoving her hands under her thighs.

Keith leaned back against his pillow and smiled before saying, "I meant the physical movements of leaning to kiss you. Not the actual kiss itself."

Pidge's cheeks burned even more, and she cursed herself for losing her cool and admitting that she just had her first kiss. Katie Holt didn't lose her confidence over a boy. But Keith wasn't just a boy, he was the young man who had been with her since the beginning of Voltron. He watched her grow up, he was there right along with her when they defeated Zarkon. Keith was the one who fought by her side only a day ago.

Keith's smile faded and the intense look in his eyes made Pidge's heart falter in its beat. She found that she could barely breathe from the kiss, could barely think about anything other than Keith's lips on her own. She stared into his eyes and only when Okla cleared her throat behind her did she look away.

"Well, my patient looks better than the last time I saw him, that's for sure." She grinned mischievously.

Pidge stood from Keith's bed, legs shaking slightly. Okla's grin widened. "If you don't mind, I was thinking I'd check up on Keith. He'll most likely be out of here in a couple days."

"Okay," Pidge nodded, mind still a little fuzzy. She glanced over at Keith. He looked tired, but his eyes were still alight with the gleam she saw earlier. Her chest grew warm and she wondered how the heck they went from being just memories from the past to being...whatever they were now.

"I'll see you later?" She questioned, hovering near the bed.

"Of course," came Keith's reply.

She smiled and left the infirmary, her brain finally returning to normal. She startled when she noticed Kolivan standing outside the infirmary door, but she relaxed when he saw the slight tugging of the corner of his lips.

"It appears that Keith will make a full recovery," he echoed Okla's words.

"Seems like it," Pidge agreed. She made to move farther down the hall and Kolivan moved aside, chuckling low.

"Katie," he called out, causing Pidge to stop and turn around.

"I'm glad you're back here with us." Kolivan shifted with the unfamiliarity of being so emotional, but he didn't take it back.

Pidge lowered her head and smiled. "Me too."

A/N:

Idk, here's something, lol. Took me a long time to write. I've kind of grown out of this a bit (I'm not saying that writing fanfic is childish, we all know it takes a lot to do this), but I love writing still and the urge to finish this hit me like bus, so tada, here's pt. 2. It's not edited so I apologize for any mistakes.

I hope everyone is doing well. Thank you for reading and for not attacking me for my super long hiatus thing. I didn't fall off the face of the earth, lol, just was doing other things. See you all later.

~Author 


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